Working on that Decluttering Thing...

Alright, so you already know I’m a hoarder, but I also come from a family of hoarders. It’s positively in my genes. It’s not just my parents, but my entire family: my grandparents on both sides, my sister, my brother, my aunts and uncles, great aunts and uncles, cousins…you get the picture. For someone wanting to improve their life and the environment I’ve been dealt one heck of a hand: I come from a family where they literally place their value on the amount of “stuff” they have. It’s like the stuff they have makes them who they are.

So this past weekend I had one of my nephews, Fatty, and had to drive down to my parents to pick him up after work due to various events that occurred. As I had a “cleaning fit” earlier in the week I asked my sister if she would like my behind the toilet shelving unit thingie that I had finally managed to completely clean off, and brought it down to my parents to get it out of the middle of my bedroom floor and for them to take to her when their Explorer gets out of the shop. The first words out of my mother’s mouth when she see’s this is “Don’t you need that?” My response was I cleaned it off and found stuff on there that I wasn’t using so I gave it away, repurposed it, or chucked it in some other way. The look on her face was priceless, pure horror.

Taking it one step further and revealed I was trying to declutter and learn to live by a “less is more” type of motto. My dad, being dad, simply goes “It’s not in your genes, it will never happen.” My mom on the other hand, I think her head started to spin at this point, sputters out “But that’s your stuff you can’t get rid of your stuff.” I didn’t argue back, instead I inwardly gloated for causing such a ruckus.

Growing up in Florida our house was twice the size (if not more) than the house that we moved into when we moved to Virginia in ’98. But we kept the same amount of junk (crap?) that we had in Florida. My room in Florida was huge! Instead of downsizing our oversized furniture, my mother insisted on cramming it all into (what seemed like) these tiny Virginia rooms. For many years, I thought that Virginia homes were so small and that I wanted to go back to the large stately home I grew up in. In my high school days I was definitely a snob (at least inwardly) about it. Yes part of it is my childhood perception, and the houses/rooms aren’t nearly as big as I remember them. On my last visit “back home” in July ’07 I drove past my old house and it did look smaller, but all the rooms in my grandma and Aunt’s houses still looked huge compared to the Virginia rooms.

It took me until within the last year to really realized that living with more crap than you need is no way to live, and only in the last three-four months have I really gotten brave (emotionally sound) enough to really push back on these concepts that have been forced on me my whole life and say “Hey there’s something wrong with what we’re doing.”

So the moral of my long winded story (if you're still reading) is that I’m gonna keep pushing forward on my “less is more” attempt at life (and watch my mother’s head spin in the process), and maybe just maybe one day soon I’ll be able to actually live in a smaller space and not feel like I’ve got crap overflowing from every possible crevice. I’m definitely motivated by the knowledge that overseas I’ll most likely have to share a room in a trailer. I’m definitely evaluating what stuff I use, what stuff has good memories/emotions connected with it that I want to keep (like Buddy’s—my dad’s aunt who raised him—table and box), and what stuff will be useful to have when I return from overseas (like basic kitchenware—and I mean basic: 1 bowl, 1 plate, 3 cups/mugs, etc.). Hey, at least I’m managing to still downsize. That’s the point right?

August Challenges for 52 Weeks

I have a couple of “on going” goals that I really want to work on this month.

• Declutter apartment room by room
  
• Use up pre-packaged items in apartment (to be replace with sustainable/homemade alternatives)

Some of my other goals are directly tied into the first goal

• Give away TV (waiting for my sister to pick up)
  
• Take unused items to the Salvation Army (it just happens to be closer to my apartment than Goodwill)
  
• Use Freecycle and Craig's List to help declutter apartment
  
• Give away/Sale oversized desk in living room (that's after I clean off it's contents and actually find the desk again)

The new changes that I’m pulling from the queue are

• Give up using handicap parking spaces (except at work where I might not get a space at all otherwise)
  
• Walk or bike to cafe to use WiFi

And I did go ahead and get the Craig’s List bike yesterday, so I’m going to count that as one of my challenges for August to jump start me, but everything else is an in progress or new challenge. It's not a fantastic bike, but it will definitely serve the purpose of getting me out and exercising while I try to patiently wait for a call about the job overseas.

And in preparation for the Buy Nothing Challenge I returned the rolling book back I bought last summer from LLBean and took advantage of their 100% Satisfaction Guarantee and was able to get the duffel I'll need to pack in when I go overseas, a lunch box and a stainless steal water bottle and cozy. After the monogramming on the duffel, I only owed $15. Pretty good considering I would have just given away the back pack and had to pay upfront for everything if I did use the 100% Satisfaction Guarantee that I had forgotten about. Much better deal for my wallet this way. ^_^

Socks...and a Bike!

Hi! My name is Hope and I'm addicted to socks. Not just any socks but warm socks. And hand warmers. Cute colors are a bonus, but aren't required. They must keep me warm and can't be scratchy. Hi, Hope!

In comes Sock Dreams. I've picked up their Long Cuffable Scrunchable Socks, O Wollies, Plaid Arm Warmers, and Microfiber Chenille Arm Warmers (just to name a few) over the last year and a half.

I was bad and found out they were had a promo code for 20% off (promo code: 9yearsonline). So what did I do? I order lots and lots of socks and more of the Chenille Arm Warmers in the colors I didn't have. But this wasn't just a frivolous spending spree (in preparation for Crunchy Chicken's Buy Nothing Challenge that starts on Saturday) but also practical planning for that hopeful job overseas...I definitely don't have enough socks to make it two weeks.

Ok, so I may have gone overboard with lots of socks, but hey they are practical and I promise not one pair of them where knee highs or over the knee socks (because even though I love these types of socks my dancer's calfs and monstrous thighs just don't make them comfortable). And, and the hand warmers will now match (instead of clash) with my outfits at work since my cube is in the sub-arctic region of the room (two cubes up it's feels like heaven to me, but they are sweating). So the hand warmers aren't made from recycled cotton, but the socks are. ^_^

And I'm going to look at a bike tonight. I've been wanting to get a bike for a couple of months but couldn't afford a new one. I tried Freecycle, but there are at least three other women looking for bikes there. And of course stupid me forgot all about Craig's List where there is an entire section devoted to bikes. So I weeded out the expensive bikes and eventually found an $80 bike. A little more than I want to spend, but still a heck of a lot better than $380 for the bike I covet at Olde Town Bike, one day it will be mine but for now the important thing is not fluffy features and is to get me out exercising.

If I can learn to tackle the hills around my apartment I can bike to the local coffee shop and steal use their free wifi instead of driving there (it's only a mile, I can totally do it...even with the monstrous hills that will attempt to defeat me).

52 Weeks

So I’ve several lists to the right hand side of my page that I've added over the last couple of days. They include positive/green changes I’ve made, am in the mist of making, and want to make. The idea is to come up with 52 positive changes for my new phase of life (I have a job for now, but it’s only until September) that will hopefully springboard me into my future in the computer industry. By why wait to make a big commitment until I have that ever elusive job? So starting next month I want to be able to come back on August 1st, 2010 and see that I’ve made 52 weeks of positive changes that are going to stay with me.

Why 52? Well I read somewhere that it takes doing something seven times to make it a lasting habit (and 365 small changes seams a little too intimidating to me). I’m currently reading “Sleeping Naked is Green”* and applaud Vanessa from Green as a Thistle for taking up her challenge; I’m not that brave yet (maybe one day I will be). Another reason is that if I do go overseas, I can use a “stock” of positive changes I’ve already made to stay in the green during that transition phase. While there are certain things that may end up in a “holding queue” such has no bottled water (it’s not optionally according to my friend in Afghanistan unless I want the runs permanently) that I’ll have to back peddle on, but I will hopefully be able to balance the list out with other positive changes (like getting into shape, i.e. being able to walk 1 mile without wheezing).

*On a side note, once people get over the shock of seeing me reading and realize that it's not for grad school they immdeiately read the title and think it's porn. I've gotten numerous response like, "Hope, how dare you read that in public/at the doctor's office/in your cube." Once I let them read the back cover or the first page they blush and scurry off to let me to read my book in peace.

Face Wash Bliss

After reading about using honey as a face wash I started experimenting with it at the gym at work, to help use up my honey while I’m still employed. I’ve also been using honey with brown sugar as a nice scrub/mask. I commented the other day that between my tea rinse and the honey that I never thought a gym shower could be so yummy smelling.

I wasn’t sure it was going to work, so I didn’t fully switch and kept using my old face wash from the health food store and old scrub from LUSH. I can hardly believe it, but I’m totally hooked on the honey. The LUSH scrub was called Ocean Salt while it did a great job at exfoliating not only my face but also the rest of my skin, it tasted awful when it got in my mouth and stung when it got in my eyes. And let’s face it, this happens quite often. So when I finished my face scrub tub, last week I could barely contain myself the next day at work from telling everyone how amazing honey and brown sugar scrubs are (hey I’m already that lesbian hippy child who refuses to where make-up—to my mother’s dismay, freely talks about reusable menstrual solutions—so long as I’m only in female company—in the office, so it really isn’t that far of a stretch for me to go off about a honey face wash, but I restrained myself).

So Sunday night when I finally jumped in the shower after a long weekend of babysitting my youngest nephew (aka Fatty) I was almost shocked to squeeze out my health food store face wash and it practically run out of my hand. I don’t know how I’m gonna use up all that store bought face wash so I can use the honey full time. Here's a picture of Fatty down in Occoquan on Saturday after we went to the Farmer's Market (he just noticed we where next to a dock and there were ducks!).